something strange
by Stormshadow3
Summary: Hurricanes. Storms. Tornadoes. But out of the rain comes a rainbow. (Basically, a collection of one-shots. Mostly just weird stuff.)
1. Red

Mirror, Mirror, Serenity

The day I found Death, he also found me.

His pelt glistened like falling ash, and his eyes could not be seen under the matted fur that was stuck to his sides. Rain. It happens to everyone. Maybe he didn't have eyes at all, but I didn't care, because he was standing right there, not moving, staring at- me.

The cat that everyone feared. The cat that our enemies loved. They say that he was only a spirit, nothing of clear substance, but I knew he was real, just as real as we were.

Today, I finally found him.

Death is flicking his tail, over his shoulders, to a place that I had been running for all my life. Home. I can't see them, but I'm sure my eyes are glistening with pain and surprise and many more things that I cannot describe. Feeling is a thing alone that cannot be put into words.

He is offering me a deal, he says; the only thing that you've ever wanted, the place that makes you feel at peace, in serenity, and makes you want to live on. To settle down, and all that, for a mere something of his choosing.

I thought he would have at least said something about what he wanted. I would have given him anything; after all, everything that I ever wanted was already at Home. But instead of staying to bargain with me some more, he just shook his head and, without a warning, varnished into thin air. Gone.

There was nothing left but the smell of burning bones in the place where he once was. That, and the presence of ash.

I should have suspected trickery. What else could it be? Death never gives up a bargain. But it was drawing me closer, Home, and I wanted to be there when it welcomed me. I stepped forward, but the image just flickered and moved closer away.

Shapes began moving, very vague shapes that seemed to drift in and out of view. They looked like earth-born cats, but they could have been anything else for all I knew. Maybe the Twisted Woods were coming to take me away.

It was then that I realized: I knew who they were.

There was my mother. She was scowling, like the lot of them, claws unsheathed and barring my way. There was my little brother, and he was blocking my way, too. I tried to sidestep, but everyone seemed to move with me at the same time.

I opened my mouth. I wanted to say something. I wasn't even sure if I did open my mouth or not, but I did know that no sound came out. Nothing at all.

Move aside, I wanted to say. My tail flickered from side to side, and my whiskers were trembling. Get out of my way. I want to come home and curl up in a tight little ball with no one, absolutely no one to bother me any longer.

But everyone that I ever knew was there, right in front of me. Including... myself.

I couldn't tell what color his pelt was, or what emotion I found in his eyes. Maybe it was a she-cat, and I had been delusional with thinking I was a tom my whole life. But I knew that he was not going to get in my way.

I didn't care anymore. I ran. The shapes parted around me, and some dissipated into nothingness. Fog was surrounding me, but I saw it before me. Happiness. Rain was first streaking around me, then going around, then disappearing altogether. I ran faster.

I felt happy for the first time since I left home. There was falling. Happiness.

More falling.

* * *

Several cats made their way around the top of the ridge, staring down at the scene below them. He was almost dancing, dancing madly, and was dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. Too close for comfort, in fact.

The only she-cat in the group coughed. "Uh, should we go help him?"

There was a screeching in the distance. The tom shrugged. "Well, it's too late now. There he goes."

He was happy. He found home. He found death.

Everyone else that he had ever loved was already there.


	2. Orange

Names With No Souls

I am the name with no soul.

You made me an appearance, but no identity.

I sit there, lonely,

all because I serve no purpose.

Do you remember me?

Nightflash. Buzzardkit.

Dawneye. Lightwillow. Deersnout.

Black she-cat with amber eyes.

White tom with ginger stripes,

and then you abandoned me.

I am that forgotten name in your list of allegiances.


	3. Yellow

Shedding Snake

They think that I am perfect. They think that I can do anything, hear anything, know everything.

So I run.

I run away, to somewhere where all my worries would be put behind me and new ones would emerge. Because no one knows my true self. Everyone likes me, yet no one understands me. I hate that.

There is only one cat that I am interested in, and that cat truly knows me from inside out. That cat knows that I can fail. Because no one else seems to get it. I'm lonely, but I'm never alone. Sometimes, even that cat can fail me.

I stop at the river's edge. Cool and soft, trickling past like the earth shifting, moving, walking underneath me. Like a snake shedding its skin.

That cat. Myself. Shedding my outer personality as I sit on the edge, watching the birds sing, the crickets chirp... and the war raging outside in the thick of the forest. But I do not interfere.

The only thing I hear is peace within my head.


End file.
